The Tonga Police are investigating video footage of a brutal beating of young male students by another male student that has been posted on the internet.

The deputy commissioner of police, Koloale'o Soakai, told Matangi online police had recently received a copy of the 18 minutes video of corporal punishment, identified to have taken place at Tonga College in 2011.

She says the Ministry of Education is also looking into the video.

The deputy commissioner says the information they have received is that the student who carried out the punishment was a prefect, who is no longer a student, and the reason for the punishment was due to a mobile phone that was lost.

The Deputy Commissioner says they are only acting on the matter now since this is the first time they have seen the video on the internet.

The video has since been widely viewed on the internet showing the male student weilding a large stick repeatedly hitting a number of male students on their bottoms, backs and legs, in an assault, which went on for 18 minutes.